Sydney Desalination Plant

The super duplex stainless steel control gates were manufactured to the highest specifications including hydrostatic testing to over 200 tonnes. Sydney Water has designed the plant so it can be quickly upgraded to twice its size, delivering 30% of Sydney’s water supply needs if necessary.

Advanced manufacturing practises at AWMA Pty Ltd saw hydrostatic testing included in the supply agreement for the Sydney Desalination Plant. The unique testing capabilities established at AWMA provide clients with reduced asset risk. Due to the nature of the desalination plant, the design specifications of the Blue Water Project were extremely demanding. The penstocks and stopboards will withstand high head pressure capacity in off seating conditions, continuous exposure to unfiltered and waste backwash sea water as well as daily exposure to super chlorination.

The penstocks are approximately 3m x 4m and manufactured from Super Duplex Stainless Steel, due to its corrosive resistance and 100 year life expectancy. All gates manufactured for this project comply with stringent ‘continuous welding’ specifications for Super Duplex Stainless Steel.   The project, worth $2 billion, was Australia’s single largest water infrastructure project at the time.

The wind powered plant can supply up to 250million litres of water a day – which is up to 15% of Sydney’s water needs. The plant will draw sea water, from the Tasman Sea off the coast at Kurnell. Through the reverse osmosis process freshwater will be extracted from seawater before it is further treated and connected with Sydney’s water supply at Erskineville. The pipeline will be laid in Kurnell, Botany Bay, Kyeemagh, Tempe, St Peters, Alexandria and Erskineville.

The reverse osmosis building is currently the largest of its kind under construction in the Southern hemisphere and the second largest in the world.